Maud’Dib

It is as the Princess Irulan says; to understand Paul Atreides, Mau’Dib, we have to understand him as a Fremen in context. 

This protects us from analysing him in such a way we forget that and the importance of it. Mentats compare the with- and without- assimilation of this awareness to recognise the validity of Paul Maud’Dib’s decision-making processes. 

“One cannot accurately judge a culture by the standards of a different culture.” Rakis Holy Nomad

It goes beyond “Paul is a psychopath.” All leaders bare traits of psychopathy. It is not the definitive understanding of the man. Maud’Dib was a living prophecy, a religious leader, Mahdi. He was rightly considered so for many generations after his time. 

Paul was not a Qwizard Haderach. He did not ‘come a generation too early’. Paul knew his children would be. He foresaw this both with his Mentat training and in his spice visions. Maud’Dib did manipulate the superstition of the Bene Gesserit, Fremen and Imperium alike, using the role as political leverage to attain his goals. 

In doing so, Paul’s calculations and foresight of the long-term consequences undoubtably proved his seizing of the Imperial Throne as necessary to subdue opposition from within and fragmentation of the feudal Empire, to avoid stagnation which his son LetoII later discussed in his journals and with Moneo and the Idaho gholas. Maud’Dib and LetoII both saw the same view in their spice visions. They met each other there. 

Flower Fade

This is one from a series of short epigrams entitled: "Coffee House" inspired by Al Raqis.

Flower Fade

I would like to thank the Desertborn for teaching me an immutable teaching. From the first time Ivana introduced (my alt) to the Al Raqis sim and sat me in observation of a parliamentary meeting, to the storytelling session in seeq. The patient Pacing here is a huge part of the transcription, this teaching, it is wordless hence immutable. Sighs.

Today this platform helped me through to deal with somebody important to me irl, the simplicity of sharing a coffee and giving a person all of the energy and space they need to relax. The giving to someone the space to relax and to communicate. It is in the silence, the sharing, the bonding. This is part of the Tau. Minute energy connections and communications between people that occur only when we are not talking, when we are in those dreamy between spaces, coming into alertness. Levels in the drifting winds, altitudes of comfort, the places we connect and share worlds by our energetic configurations. After lifetimes of stress where such encounters are a battle for the levels, such moments are precious.

As for the person; Some flowers are so fragile, their colour changes when you look at them. In a world where the sun fades everything to the colour of dust, the lesson is to nurture. Frank Herbert wrote the line (paraphrased); "their preconception is not with water; it is with moisture, and that is an entirely more delicate thing."

As I sat in the room with her and her motion - psymotion stirred the winds, I saw the streams, my wings through the back of me as i faced her, tan and sand colour ribbons connecting threads back into Al Raqis to those planes and connections where the moment by magnetism attaches, the roots of focus and memory. It might be cyber but the stories are as real in psy-space, dream-space, as are material based events. I poured coffee, she spoke. 

I battled with inner demons pushing me to sit beside her, take her hand and softly kiss her lips, staying focused instead on respecting her; falling into her eyes which see past me and the room, she described energies around me with profound accuracy even without a tarot guide. To look into the eyes of a true soul is rare in this life and I had to look away for fear of her seeing my need. It is to her I should be saying these words, and yet to do so would burden her with weights. So they are shared as story, what is of great import to one is a light relief to another. 

Such is coffee house.